John Machell (1637–1704) was for twenty years Member of Parliament for Horsham, Sussex, during the reigns of Charles II, James II and William III and Mary II.B.M. Crook, 'Machell, John, (1637–1704), of Hills Place, Horsham, Suss.', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1660–1690 (Boydell & Brewer, 1983), (History of Parliament online). P. Watson, 'Machell, John (1637–1704), of Hills Place, Horsham, Suss.', in D. Hayton and D. Cruickshanks (eds), The History of Parliament 1690–1715 (Boydell & Brewer, 2002), (History of Parliament online). By the marriage of his daughter Isabella Machell (1670–1764) to Arthur Ingram, 3rd Viscount of Irvine, he became the grandfather of the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Viscounts of Irvine, and great-grandfather of the ninth, seated at Temple Newsam near Leeds, whose family inherited and augmented his valuable property of Hills house at Horsham, and continued the parliamentary tradition there.
Family origins
John Machell's father, Mathew Machell (c. 1605–1682), was a great-grandson of John Machell, Sheriff of London in 1555–56.W. H. Challen, 'John Machell, M.P., Horsham', Sussex Notes and Queries XVI (1964), pp. 114–121. See also 'Machell' in W.C. Metcalfe (ed.), The Visitations of Essex in 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612 and 1634, Part 1, Harleian Society XIII (London 1878), p. 441. Mathew's father John (1580–1647) married Jane, daughter of Sir Nicholas Woodroffe of Poyle, Surrey, in 1599,'Matchell, of Wendover', in W.H. Rylands (ed.), The Visitation of the County of Buckingham made in 1634, Harleian Society LVIII (London 1909), p. 88. and, developing his London and East India Company commercial interests,'Free Brethren of the East India Company', in 'East Indies, China and Japan: December 1617', in W.N. Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies, China and Japan Volume 3, 1617–1621 (HMSO London, 1870), pp. 81-100. (British History online, accessed 25 August 2016). and having established himself in Wendover, Buckinghamshire,G. Lipscomb, The History and Antiquities of the County of Buckingham, Vol. II (J. & W. Robins, London 1847), pp. 488–89, note 4. remarried in 1624 to Lady Elizabeth Aungier of Great Tangley, near Wonersh, Surrey, daughter of Francis Aungier and his first wife Douglas Fitzgerald (sister to Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Kildare). Machell took up residence in Surrey.Certificate of residence: John Machell liable for taxation in Surrey and not as previously in Buckinghamshire (1625); The National Archives Discovery Catalogue, piece description E 115/257/34. Lady Elizabeth had acquired Tangley by her first marriage, to Simon Carryll, by whom she had issue including a daughter Elizabeth.'Carrell', in W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Surrey, 1530, 1572 and 1623, Harleian Society XLIII (London 1899), pp. 88–89. Carryll dying in c. 1619, she remarried to Richard Barne (1573–1620) (son of George BarneLord Mayor of London in 1586, and son of George Barne, Lord Mayor 1552–53: cf. 'Barne', in J.J. Howard (ed.), The Visitation of London in the year 1568, Harleian Society I (London 1869), p. 25. J.H. Pleasants, 'The Lovelace Family and its connections: Barne of London and Woolwich', The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography XXIX (Richmond, Va., for 1921), pp. 110–124 (pdf pages 124-140). and Anne, daughter of Sir William Garrard), by whom she had a son and daughter before becoming Machell's wife. Her father, who was created first Baron of Longford in 1621, married Barne's sister Anne as his second wife.'Family of Lord Aungier', in J. Lodge, revised M. Archdall, The Peerage of Ireland: Or, a Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom Vol. III (James Moore, Dublin 1789), pp. 376–78.
Although John Machell and Lady Elizabeth had no direct issue between them, the union of their lines occurred in the next generation, when in 1635 Mathew Machell, the third son of John, married his own step-sister Elizabeth Carryll at Wonersh.Challen, John Machell, M.P., Horsham. Mathew had been apprenticed a Goldsmith in London to the royal silversmith Edward Sewster, who died in 1628 granting the uncompleted term of service to his apprentice.Will of Edward Sewster, Goldsmith of London (P.C.C. 1628). Mathew and Elizabeth had three children, christened by Stephen Geree at Wonersh, of whom John Machell, born 1637,Compound Register of St John the Baptist, Wonersh. Surrey History Centre, Woking: Anglican Parish Registers. was the only one to survive infancy. His mother, who appears to have been a woman of serious religious character, died aged 23 of smallpox at or near Tangley at Easter 1639.The ornament of women. Or, A description of the true excellency of women: Delivered in a sermon at the funerall of M. Elizabeth Machell, on Easter Munday being the 15. of April 1639. By Stephen Geree, minister of Gods Word at Wonnersh, neare Guildford in Surrey (Printed by T. B[adger] for L. F[awne] and S. G[ellibrand] and are to be sold at the signe of the Brazen Serpent, in Pauls Church-Yard, London 1639), esp. at pp. 64, 87. Read at Google. T.N.A. (Chancery): Inquisitions post mortem, ref. C 142/579/78 (1638–39). John therefore became the only heir in blood of the Machell connection with the Carryll and Aungier families.
Early life and education John was probably nurtured at Great Tangley by his grandmother: his father remarried in 1644 to a widow Jane Smither, sister and co-heir of John Downe of Cobham, Surrey (d. 1661),Downe, who married Elizabeth Sutton, was active in the Cobham confrontations with Gerrard Winstanley, cf. J. Gurney, Brave Community: The Digger Movement in the English Revolution (Manchester University Press, 2013), passim. from whom the estate of Downe Place, Downside,Downe Place became incorporated into Cobham Park at a later date, but was not on the same site, see D. Graham, A. Graham & D. Taylor, 'Trial trenching on a probable moated site at Downside, Cobham', Surrey Archaeological Collections XCII (2005), pp. 217-29. descended to Jane's son George Smither.Will of John Downe, Gentleman of Cobham, Surrey (P.C.C. (proved) 1661). There were two sons and two daughters of Mathew's second family who, during the 1650s and 1660s, had their country seat at West Horsley (near the Aungier and Fitzgerald residences). Mathew's sister Jane had married into the Gavell family who, like the Downes and Suttons, were heirs to lands around Cobham formerly belonging to Chertsey Abbey through pre-Reformation familial connections.T.E.C. Walker, 'Cobham: Manorial History', Surrey Archaeological Collections LVIII (1961), pp. 47-78, at p. 55 and passim. John Machell the grandfather died in 1647, his eldest son John (of Wendover) being his heir,John (of Wendover) matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1619 and entered the Inner Temple; and his descendants followed in the University of Oxford. J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (Oxford 1891), British History online (retrieved 6 September 2016). but making some provision for his grandsons:Will of John Machell, Gentleman of Wonersh, Surrey (P.C.C. 1647). in 1634 he had taken control of the estate of Nicholas, his second son, who died young leaving an infant boy.Will of Nicholas Machell, Skinner of London; Sentence of Nicholas Machell of St Michael Cornhill (both P.C.C. 1634). Lady Elizabeth died in 1650, and Great Tangley passed to her son John Carryll.Will of Elizabeth Machell of Wonersh, Surrey (P.C.C. 1650 and 1653).
John Machell, Mathew's son, was educated at the Inner Temple, which he entered in 1649, and was called in 1658.'Machell, John (1637–1704)', in History of Parliament 1660–1690 and 1690–1715. His contemporary there, his cousin Nicholas Machell the younger, died of smallpox at the Paper Buildings in January 1654/55.Will of Nicholas Machell, Gentleman of Inner Temple, City of London (P.C.C. 1655). J.L. Chester, The Parish Registers of St Michael Cornhill, London, Harleian Society Registers, Vol. VII (London 1882), p. 247. He held a B.A. from Queens' College, Cambridge: Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, Part 1 Vol. III (Cambridge University Press 1924), p. 123. In 1654 Mathew Machell purchased for his son the mansion (now lost)Some impression of Hills Place in 1787 can be gained from a woodcut at p. 36 in H. Dudley, The History and Antiquities of Horsham (Author, London 1836). (Horsham Photography site). See also 'Hills Place' in Horsham, Its History and Antiquities (William Macintosh, London 1868), pp. 137-39 (Internet Archive). and 180 acre estate of Hills, at Horsham,A.F. Hughes and J. Knight, Hills: Horsham's Lost Stately Home and Garden (Horsham Museum Society 1999). from Thomas Middleton, M.P.,Crook, 'Machell, John (1637–1704)', History of Parliament 1660–1690. which in 1658–59, being in the occupation of Bray Chowne, was conveyed to John for £3000,Lease and release, T.N.A. Discovery Catalogue, Piece description WISTON/1418 and 1419 (West Sussex Record Office). though the sale was not finalized until 1668, when the Middleton heir reached majority.A.P. Baggs, C.R.J. Currie, C.R. Elrington, S.M. Keeling and A.M. Rowland, 'Horsham: Manors and other estates', in T.P. Hudson (ed.), A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 6 Part 2, Bramber Rape (North-Western Part) Including Horsham, (V.C.H., London 1986), pp. 156-166, at note 297. (British History Online accessed 25 August 2016). Hills had been an hereditament of Sir John Caryll's of Warnham, SussexR. Virgoe, 'Caryll (Carrell), John, (c. 1505–1566), of Warnham, Suss.', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1509–1558 (Boydell and Brewer, 1982), (History of Parliament online). (Simon Carryll's great-uncle'Carrell', in W. Bruce Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Surrey, 1530, 1572 and 1623, Harleian Society Vol. XLIII (London 1899), pp. 88-89.): John's great-great-grandfather Edward Lewknor (grandfather of John Machell of Great TangleySon of Mary Lewknor, sister of Sir Edward Lewknor of Denham.) had held a parliamentary seat for Horsham in 1553,R.J.W. Swales, 'Lewknor, Edward, 1516/17-56, of Kingston Buci, Suss.', in Bindoff, History of Parliament 1509–1558 (History of Parliament online). reflecting his ancestral connections of Lewknor and Radmyld (Hawksbourne manor) and of Hoo and Copley (Roffey manor) in Horsham.'Horsham: Manors and other estates', V.C.H. Sussex Vol. 6 Part 2.J.J. Howard, The Visitation of Suffolke II (1871), at pp. 261-270, and see pp. 231-32 and p. 271, reproduced from 'Liber Drury', British Library Add MS 5523, fol. 110. Compare W.B. Bannerman (ed.), The Visitations of the County of Sussex, etc., Harleian Society Vol. LIII (London 1905), pp. 25-30, at pp. 28-29.